


[Collaboration] A Scarf for Harry

by kitty_collab (kitty_fic), Vaysh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Digital Art, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Knitting, M/M, The Burrow (Harry Potter), Translation Available, 中文 | Chinese
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-22 16:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22118602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitty_fic/pseuds/kitty_collab, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vaysh/pseuds/Vaysh
Summary: Molly Weasley is teaching Draco how to knit.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 28
Kudos: 191
Collections: Harry/Draco Owlpost 2019





	[Collaboration] A Scarf for Harry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MotherBooker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MotherBooker/gifts).
  * Translation into 中文-普通话 國語 available: [【哈德】【授权翻译】给哈利的礼物](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22540750) by [Ingenting_fanns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ingenting_fanns/pseuds/Ingenting_fanns)



> Dear Motherbooker, this gift collaboration was created as a pinch-hit, and we had so much fun with it. Your prompt about Molly Weasley teaching Draco how to knit sparked our imagination. We hope you enjoy what we created for it. Have a Happy New Year.

  


* * *

* * *

  


Draco has a scarf – dark grey cashmere, expensive. Mother bought it at Twillfitt and Tatting's for a Yule when he was at Hogwarts, a lifetime ago. Sometimes, when he wraps himself in it, Draco imagines he can still smell Mother's perfume. The scarf is softer than the fluffiest down of newly-hatched owlets. It is warm in the coldest of nights. Harry, _Harry_ , loves the scarf.

It's the second Yule they will spend together, no longer enemies, and not just as friends but lovers. How they got together is a long story, and by now the Wizarding World, the Weasleys in particular, is thoroughly sick of it. Yes, he's a Malfoy, yes, (speaking of owlets) he was a baby Death-eater with a bloody Mark on his arm. And Harry is the Boy Who Lived To Save them all. _Harry_ is thoroughly sick of hearing about this part of their story.

So they will spend Yule together, first at the Manor, then at the Burrow, then home at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. Mrs Weasley even invited Mother, who politely declined but was secretly pleased. Of course, one would never celebrate Yule anyplace other than at one's ancestral home. But there will be an owl in January, inviting Molly Weasley for tea at the Manor. It's rapprochement. They've been in the same year at Hogwarts, after all. Mother knew Mrs Weasley when she was still Molly Prewett, for Merlin's sake! And they are both from old Pureblood families, not that Draco will ever mention it.

Yule. Together. As Lovers. Draco needs a gift for Harry. Something heartfelt, something special, something that cannot be bought for all the Galleons lying in the Malfoy vault at Gringotts.

Draco remembers exactly when the idea hit him – on the first cold day in September. The park at Grimmauld Square was covered in frost. He stood at the window, looking out, and there was Harry, in a thick white jumper Draco had never seen before. His hair was black and too long; it curled in the icy air. Draco has forgotten what Harry did out there early in the morning. But the moment stayed with him: the cold, the white jumper, and Harry bright and so full of life. He knew then that as a Yule gift, he wants to knit something for Harry.

Of course, neither Hogwarts nor Death Eater Central offered knitting lessons, and so Draco asks Mrs Weasley.

First thing she tells him is, "You need to call me Molly, Draco. The war is over, and you are Harry's partner now..." She means _life partner_ not Auror partner, Draco is pretty sure. "... and that's as good as related."

Draco says, "Of course, Mrs– ... _Molly_ , I'd love to," and some deep-seated pureblood place within himself is appalled at the vilification of being on a first-name basis with the Muggle-loving Weasel mom.

But. She's Harry's ersatz-mom. Let's _not_ get started on the actual Muggles who abused Harry as a child. The holidays are coming, the season of love and _forgiveness_. And while Draco will never forgive the Dursleys, Harry has a long time ago.

And Draco knows nobody else who can knit. He went into Muggle London and tried to learn knitting from YouTube videos in a café that has the internet. The result was... The result was a disaster, and that's putting it mildly. An _Outstanding_ in Potions N.E.W.T.S. does _not_ prepare you for amateur knitting. Draco needs Mrs Weas... _Molly_ to teach him how to knit his gift for Harry.

He wants to knit Harry a jumper, a warm, soft one, not white but a blue that he's seen described as _teal_ in his favourite store on Savile Row.

Mrs… _Molly_ quickly dissuades him from this idea. A jumper is too complicated for a first knitting project, she claims. When Draco takes a good look at the jumper she's working on (a hideous purple thing with an orange H that Draco can only hope stands for _Hugo_ and not Harry) he reluctantly has to agree. It's December 14, and even he can't learn the difference between purlwise and knitwise, between a step pyramid and a cone pattern, a bell-shaped or a drop sleeve cap – not in less than ten days. His head is already spinning after Molly's introduction to straight needles, circular needles, and various _gauges_.

"You best start with a scarf, Draco dear," Molly says. "That way something of you is always wrapped around Harry." She smiles in a way that Draco hopes is not meant suggestively, and immediately his mind wanders to all of his body parts he could wrap around Harry, or around body parts of Harry, inside and out.

"All right." He coughs and is _not_ blushing right in front of Mrs Weasley's eyes. "All right, I'm knitting a scarf. I bought this nevertangle wool –" He takes the teal-coloured balls out of his bag and –

Molly has already taken the wool out of his hands. "Oh my God, this is wonderful, Draco. Cashmere." The way she pronounces the word with obvious care, Draco doesn't think Molly has seen a lot of cashmere in her life.

She puts Draco's three teal-coloured balls of wool on the cluttered Weasel kitchen table. "But," she says, and Draco notices how she gives the cashmere a small, loving pat, "it's really too expensive for a scarf. Once you've had some knitting practice, it will make a gorgeous jumper for Harry. You will need more of it, though." She glances up to him. "Will you be able to afford more of this wool? I know nevertangle comes at a higher price."

Will he be able... ? "Yes, yes, of course." Draco looks down at the empty bag from Spindlewarps, then back to where Molly is still caressing the teal-coloured cashmere.

Perhaps the Weasleys do not know he and Mother were given back access to the Malfoy vaults. Unlikely. Perhaps Molly always considers the affordability of things, and she has plain forgotten that he is a Malfoy who never in his life had to spare a thought on how much things cost. Draco is equally pleased and appalled. He decides right there and then to gift Molly the fingerless gloves made from merino wool he saw on display at Spindlewarps. Their sea-blue colour will go splendidly with her ginger hair.

He refuses to consider what it means that he can hold _splendid_ and _ginger hair_ in the same thought. Instead, he wonders whether he needs to make another trip to Diagon to get suitable wool for Harry's gift. But Molly winks at him. From a sideboard she Levitates a basket full of yarn. All sizes balls, all kinds of wool in blue, white, beige and orange.

And Molly brings out more from the living room, a box full of multi-coloured wools. "There you go," she simply says.

And she sits him down at the table, with a pair of straight needles and an olive green ball of wool. Molly does the first slipknot for him, and from then on it's Draco doing the loops and basic knit stitches himself. He has to do the first row twice, but then he _gets_ it, and within minutes he has a small square piece of olive-green knit. It's scratchy and irregular and the colour is nothing Draco would ever voluntarily wear. But he instantly loves this knitted thing.

Molly is at the stove, getting dinner ready, and savoury smells waft through the kitchen. Every minute or so she looks over to him, with a quiet, happy smile on her broad face. Draco feels himself blush. He gets an inkling of why Harry loves Molly Weasley so much. He's knitted only ten bloody rows, and yet, she makes him feel proud and accomplished like Father never could.

"Knit another on," Molly says, and she points to a ball of orange wool.

Orange. Draco is no fan of orange. It's _almost_ ginger. But he's here to learn. So he grabs the wool and makes the first slipknot. He loops the orange yarn over the left needle from front to back, just like Molly showed him, then drapes the yarn over the tip of the needle with the right. And continues doing loops, one after the after until he has a width that would work for a scarf.

He's so immersed in the knitting that he only notices belatedly that Molly is standing behind him and looking over his shoulder. There's an orange cup in her hand, and when he looks up, she nods and puts the cup beside him on the table. Something spicy and sweet, but Draco has his hands full of needles and yarn. He will drink the tea when he's finished this orange square.

He does another one in dark blue, in grey and in a soft baby-blue. Knitting this one, he remembers having seen Ginny in a cable-knit jumper of the same colour. The cup of tea keeps magically refilling at his side. It tastes wonderful.

He's having dinner with the Weasels. He's actually having a week-day dinner with the Weasels. It's just three of them: Molly, Mr Weasley (Draco can't called him Arthur, not for the life of him), and Percy. Percy's been sworn to secrecy about Draco's Yule gift for Harry. He eats his sweet potato mash with an expression that is both indulgent and simply… happy. Draco cannot believe that he never saw how Percy has his mother's wide mouth and smile.

After dinner, Molly sends Draco off with the whole box of yarn that she's Shrunk so it fits into his bag from Spindlewarps.

"You're ready to knit Harry's scarf," she says.

And Draco steps out of the Burrow into the December night, ready to knit a scarf but somehow also ready for so much more.

  


* * *

  


On Yule, Harry is standing beside the huge tree in the Black Library. He's wearing the scarf Draco knitted for him, has been wearing it all evening, ever since he's unwrapped the gift. His hair is too long and it curls from the warmth of the fireplace. Faeries illuminate the tree, and Harry's hair looks dark blue in their magical light. The colour goes well with the dark blue stripes in the scarf. There's light brown stripes just like Harry's heat-flushed skin. There's fir-green stripes like Harry's eyes. There's darkish red stripes a bit like the colour of his fading scar.

There's bright red just like his Auror robes that he – thankfully – is not wearing tonight. There's the light blue from Ginny's cable-knit jumper. There's the orange from the dragon on the silly jumper Molly gifted to Harry when he was still at Hogwarts. There's the teal cashmere from the jumper Draco will knit for Harry once he's mastered the craft. There are different shades of purple, there's Slytherin green and Gryffindor red, there's pastels, yellow and pink. The scarf is a rainbow of colours. Just like – does he really need to say it? – just like Harry is.

When all their guests have left, they meet in Harry's bedroom. The winter moon is the only light, but even in the darkness the scarf is a lively pattern of greys and blacks on Harry's skin. He stands naked in front of Draco, clad with only the scarf.

He says, "I can't believe you knitted a scarf for me." There's a shining greensilver light in his eyes that's unmatched by any yarn Draco saw at Spindlewarps or on Savile Row. Draco will spend his whole life looking for wool coloured like this. But really, he doesn't have to.

With a quiet laugh Harry searches for Draco's mouth, all the while wrapping the scarf around Draco's shoulders, his chest and his waist. When they are both wrapped in it, all their body parts, inside and out, Harry draws Draco down onto the bed – into a kiss that tastes of happiness and so much more, spicy and sweet.

_fin_

**Author's Note:**

> These websites were used for information (and phrasing) about knitting: [Wikihow: Knit](https://www.wikihow.com/Knit) and [List of 6 Types and Sweater Armholes](https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/lisas-list-6-types-of-sweater-armholes/%20target=).


End file.
